Quick Disconnect for Power Bank

This turned out to have a different answer than I thought. I thought there might be a different step height (arrows below point to what I call the "step"/lip) between the two adapters, but if anything, Victor's has a much higher step than mine.

That said, based on what I am about to show, Victor should have no problem removing his USB-C adapter either with his fingernails or a small plastic tool.

The "step"/lip is there for the tool to get under for removal. However, as my next picture will show, the R5/R5m2 and other R cameras USB-C socket is not as deep as it should be, such that ALL USB-C connectors' metal parts bottom out in the socket, and so the step height is not a major factor anyway.





I then plugged the USB-C connector back into my R5 and R5m2 and noticed that about 1/8 inch (approximately 3 mm) of the metal part of the USB-C adapter was visible (see picture below). The metal of the USB-C adapter is bottoming out against the camera's USB-C socket. The exposed amount of the connector is about double the plastic "step" amount, which makes it relatively easy to pull out with my fingernails (or a plastic tool).

I compared my magnetic adapter to other USB-C cables, and the metal length is the same. I plugged the adapter into other USB-C devices, including a laptop, and the adapter plugged in flush with no metal showing. I plugged other USB-C cables into my R5 and R5m2, and they had the same amount of exposed metal.

So, the metal part of my adapter is not too long; it is that the R5/R5m2 connector is not recessed enough. Mechanically, you would want the plastic of the USB-C to be stopped by the plastic of the housing (as is the case with most USB-C products) to provide mechanical relief. If you were to hit the end of the adapter, the force would be transferred to the connector inside the camera rather than to the plastic housing, potentially breaking the connector or motherboard. While not the end of the world, it is not well designed for mechanical purposes IMO. If the USB-C port sat flush, it would also be less prone to damage when being pulled.

BTW, the Cannon supplied USB-C and HDMI protective piece does nothing for in-and-out motion, only for twisting. So, if anything, I think the magnetic connector is "safer" than using the Canon protective device, as the magnetic connector would likely break away before transferring force to the USB-C socket. More importantly, the magnetic breakaway feature would prevent the camera from being damaged by being dragged to its destruction (a much more likely cause of damage with a cable going to the camera).



I also checked the USB-C socket on my old Canon RP camera. It also bottoms out, but with about half as much of the metal exposed. I suspect this USB-C socket depth issue is present in most, if not all, Canon R cameras.

One could glue a small plastic ring around the USB-C adapter, roughly equal to the gap shown above, to provide some mechanical relief (but this is perhaps overkill).

Karl_Guttag said:

Ephemeris said:

Victor Engel said:

Ephemeris said:

Victor Engel said:

Ephemeris said:

Otaraka said:

What a clever idea, Ive always been nervous using cables other than for passive charging.

The only one like this i have I have flashy led's on the cables which may not be ideal for wildlife, but I will try this out as a concept for sure.

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The DC couplers are another potential solution. They (at least this one) can provide more power than a USB port solution but does also have to double up as the battery.

https://www.canon.co.uk/store/canon-dr-e6p-dc-coupler/6576C001/

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I'm not sure what more power would be useful for, unless maybe WIFI.

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When the port isn't capable of delivering all of the power.

Karl_Guttag said:

In my testing, the camera was fully functional on the power brick with a dead battery in the camera. I was not using WIFI, nor do I ever with my camera. The only camera I use with wifi is my security camera set up to record activity around my owl box. I'm not likely to repeat the dead battery test again.
Anyway, when I first came up with this solution, the batteries were not available on their own, so it was a solution for that issue as well. That obviously is no longer an issue.

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DC couplers were available at launch in the UK for the R52, not sure about the R5 I didn't get one at the very first days/weeks of launch.

It allows for ports to remain covered up in some cases.

Advice aimed at all users.

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That does not align with Canon's documentation. See the USB power section in the manual https://cam.start.canon/en/C017/manual/html/UG-10_Reference_0040.html

"To power the camera without charging batteries, set the camera power switch to

."
There's no indication that I can find of any features being unavailable. Batteries are charged when the camera turns off.

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It does align.

A feature, such as protecting the USB port and surrounding with the environmental protective flap would be a lost feature.

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This is a change of subject as Victor was responding to your comment (quoting below):

Karl_Guttag said:

Karl_Guttag said:

Karl_Guttag said:

When the port isn't capable of delivering all of the power.

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There is no indication that any features are lost due to not enough power when powering via USB-C.

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We have strong indicatons as mentioned on several occasions - the power profile via USB C is quite different to that from a dummy battery as part of the DC coupler kit.

Karl_Guttag said:

The biggest functionality "loss" I see is that if you have a USB-C cable in the C-Port, it interferes with the back display. You can still tilt it some, but you can't flip it over without unplugging the Cable. I think you would still be OK with just the magnetic USB-C adapter plugged in.

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That's another issue, perhaps some adapter works around it but unsure.

Karl_Guttag said:

The flapper door on the R5m2 can still cover the HDMI port with just the magnetic adapter plugged in. The magnetic plug would cover the USB-C port. The R5 flapper door design is different and cannot cover the HDMI port, even with only the magnetic USB-C adapter installed.

Note that any idea of "sealing" up the area with the R5m2 flapper door seems kind of moot, as the flapper door goes right around the cooling air holes on the R5m2.

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Not at all. The cooling vents are separate from protecting egress or mechanical issues with the USB port (probably a good place to look is a tear down - I certainly haven't taken them apart or wasted time CT scanning one)

Karl_Guttag said:

BTW, I did verify that if you have an "NP" battery in the R5m2, you will lose features that only work with the "P" battery when powering it via USB-C.

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Looking at the power profiles (via both ports) for the R5 it appeared, at least to an external that this was partly software driven but also that the USB C port isn't a direct or 100% replacement for powering via a battery or dummy battery.

Karl_Guttag said:

I also noticed that with a fully charged battery, the R5m2 does not draw any power from the USB-C port, and the battery indicator will remain white. Only once the battery has been more than slightly discharged will the battery indicator on the display turn gray, indicating that the USB-C port is powering the camera. (This was a little concerning for me as I was not sure my power bank was working at first with the R5m2 as it had a fully charged battery in it and was working differently than my R5, which had a somewhat discharged battery in it.)

Is there any other way of knowing that the USB-C connection is powering the camera other than using a power meter or seeing the grayed-out power indicator on the display?

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Unsure - we typically use power banks with gauges on them or one plugged in. Can't think of anything off the top of my head.

Karl_Guttag said:

BTW, I had forgotten that the R5 and R5m2 do not charge the battery when powered via the C-Port and the camera is ON (it had been years since I tried it on the R5). I have not tested this, but I read that the battery will still discharge very slowly with the camera on when powered by USB-C. Therefore, one may not want to wait to use the USB-C port until the battery is nearly flat.

Karl_Guttag said:

I am very content with the detailed work we have completed for electrical PSU, EMC and thermal analysis for the R5.

Canon haven't described this; it would be somewhat within the IP of the camera design. We required to know this for a project.

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Karl_Guttag said:

Otaraka said:

"Note that any idea of "sealing" up the area with the R5m2 flapper door seems kind of moot, as the flapper door goes right around the cooling air holes on the R5m2."

I suspect any ingress of salt water into any air holes and HDMI ports or the like might be pretty different in possible outcomes, my understanding is its a sealed pipe inside for the cooling.

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A mistake on my part. You are correct; there is a sealed-off, L-shaped chamber between the bottom vent and this side vent. It can be seen in this teardown photo (the chamber is white with a black seal strip, and the metal plate that covers/seals the chamber is below it): https://kolarivision.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Lifestyle-Photos_20223159.jpg

Karl_Guttag said:

Not that Id want to test it in practise, but I'd still be using whatever covers I could if I had the choice in boat situations.

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Agreed, if it's a wet or rainy location.

For me, this will be an emergency backup if the R5m2 runs through my three "P" batteries, plus my ability to recharge them with a USB-C Neewer charger. In my quick test, the R5m2 appears to drain its batteries faster than the R5, which concerns me for an upcoming trip/air show. My R5 would go through about 2 "NH" batteries in a day of shooting (about 8,000 pictures). With pre-shooting and a higher frame rate, I'm wondering if three "P" batteries will be enough.

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It's very scenario driven. Some situations the two models would be hard to distinguish from power profiles but the R52 has the capability of significantly more power consumption, in the region of 2.2 time measured over a 0.1ms period. Measure faster and things look even more unusual.

Whilst this isn't very useful for my shooting I'm around 1-2 batteries a shoot more but it does depend on pre-capture for example.

Yours appears to have a bigger gap than mine. I did struggle the first time to remove it. I do have a variety of plastic tools for use in iPhone and Mac disassembly. It should be easy to extract with one of those. I'll try to get a better picture with my other camera later. This is a cell phone picture.







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Victor Engel

On mine, it is easier to get out with my fingernails on the two short ends.

I would think your iPhone/Mac tools would work as well. Again, approach it from the short side, not the long side, as there is more room to insert the tool on the short sides.

Since there is a gap, another option is to create a small hole in a ribbon (slightly smaller than the USB-C port, as it will stretch slightly) and insert the USB-D adapter through it. Then you would have tabs to pull it out (hold the two ends together with your fingers and pull to extract. It's not really necessary in my case, as my fingernails work fine and I won't need it that often.

Victor Engel said:

Yours appears to have a bigger gap than mine. I did struggle the first time to remove it. I do have a variety of plastic tools for use in iPhone and Mac disassembly. It should be easy to extract with one of those. I'll try to get a better picture with my other camera later. This is a cell phone picture.

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